tisfy the prince, but that they all
should go home singing through the streets; in fact, there never had been
so merry a dance in all Pantouflia. The prince had made a point of
dancing with almost every girl there: and he had suddenly become the most
beloved of the royal family. But everything must end at last; and the
prince, putting on the cap of darkness and sitting on the famous carpet,
flew back to his lonely castle.

{The mothers asleep: p56.jpg}

CHAPTER VIII.

_The Prince is Puzzled_.

Prince Prigio did not go to bed. It was bright daylight, and he had
promised to bring the horns and tail of a Firedrake as a present to a
pretty lady. He had said it was easy to do this; but now, as he sat and
thought over it, he did not feel so victorious.

"First," he said, "where is the Firedrake?" He reflected for a little,
and then ran upstairs to the garret.

"It _should_ be here!" he cried, tossing the fairies' gifts about; "and,
by George, here it is!"

Indeed, he had found the spyglass of carved ivory which Prince Ali, in
the _Arabian Nights_, bought in the bazaar in Schiraz. Now, this glass
was made so that, by looking through it, you could see anybody or
anything you wished, however far away. Prigio's first idea was to look
at his lady. "But she does not expect to be looked at," he thought; "and
I _won't_!" On the other hand, he determined to look at the Firedrake;
for, of course, he had no delicacy about spying on _him_, the brute.

The prince clapped the glass to his eye, stared out of window, and there,
sure enough, he saw the Firedrake. He was floating about in a sea of
molten lava, on the top of a volcano. There he was, swimming and diving
for pleasure, tossing up the flaming waves, and blowing fountains of fire
out of his nostrils, like a whale spouting!

The prince did not like the looks of him.

{The Prince looking through the telescope: p59.jpg}

"With all my cap of darkness, and my shoes of swiftness, and my sword of
sharpness, I never could get near that beast," he said; "and if I _did_
stalk him, I could not hurt him. Poor little Alphonso! poor Enrico! what
plucky fellows they were! I fancied that there was no such thing as a
Firedrake: he's not in the Natural History books, and I thought the boys
were only making fun, and would be back soon, safe and sound. How horrid
being too clever makes one! And now, what _am_ I to do?"

{The Remora: p60.jpg}

What was he to do, in